


Viscosity of Ink

by milestofu



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Drabble Collection, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-08-09 19:58:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 5,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16456292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milestofu/pseuds/milestofu
Summary: A compilation of drabbles I've written.Pairings, ratings, and warnings—if applicable—are listed before each chapter.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, funny story, I've been writing Bendy drabbles since June, and I feel compelled to share some of them seeing as the full game is out. Almost all of these were written before the release of Chapter 5, so they're not entirely canon compliant, but most are based on theories I like set in the canon universe. A lot of these were written based on prompts given to me and are Sammy/Henry focused because I'm that guy, but others are platonic, and character driven.
> 
> With that said, **this collection does contain spoilers for the end of the game** , so don't read any of these unless you don't care about being spoiled. Please proceed with caution! I'd hate to be the one that spoils anything for you.
> 
> Now, onward to the first drabble!
> 
>  **Pairing:** Sammy Lawrence/Henry Stein  
>  **Rating:** PG-13
> 
> Set in a world where Henry escapes the studio and takes Sammy, who's returned to normal after the destruction of the Ink Machine, with him. However, Sammy's not without trauma from spending thirty years stuck in the studio.
> 
>  **Written for the prompts:** 90\. "Forget it." and 49. "Who hurt you?"

Life after the studio is difficult. Henry didn't expect it to be easy, but he had hopes that if given enough time, things would get better. They haven't. It's been over a year and Sammy still wakes himself up in the middle of the night, terrified and seeing things that aren't there. To Henry, it's as if Sammy can't separate dreams— _nightmares_ —from reality; the lines are blurred beyond recognition. It's exhausting for Henry to witness, and he knows that his exhaustion is nothing compared to the mental fatigue Sammy's experiencing to live through it on a day to day basis.

Henry wonders sometimes if it was a blessing or a curse that Sammy survived Bendy's attack because when he looks at Sammy, he's not the same man that he once was that would always have a smartass retort to anything you said, delivered in signature Sammy Lawrence™ deadpan.

Henry would give anything to have that Sammy back.

So, he does the best that he can with the resources he has. He pays for Sammy's therapy sessions and although it bleeds into his retirement savings, it's worth it because after a month, Sammy's showing signs of improvement. He smiles here and there, he makes eye contact, and he's more lucid than Henry has ever seen him since welcoming Sammy into his home after everything was said and done.

One day, after Sammy returns home, his double-breasted coat that's too big for his body drawn tight around himself to keep the harsh, cold December air out, he tells Henry that his therapist asked him who hurt him, and that he said he didn't know. Henry barely keeps the grimace from showing on his face as he thinks of Joey and Bendy and everyone else he was unable to save.

Henry reaches forward, his deft fingers helping Sammy to undo the buttons of his coat. "Forget it," he replies. "It's over now. You're safe here."

("They can't hurt you anymore.")

Sammy hums and his fingers are cold when he grabs Henry's hands to stop him from undoing the buttons. "Yeah," he says, and then continues, "I know."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** Sammy Lawrence/Henry Stein  
>  **Rating:** R
> 
> Written for Day 2 of Whumptober; the prompt was "Bloody Hands."
> 
>  **Warnings:** Character death, graphic description of injury, blood, etc.

After spending the better half of the last twenty-four hours seeing cartoon characters brought to life bleed congealed, black ink, it catches Henry off guard to see the redness of actual human blood. Sammy sits propped up against the wall in one of the upper rooms in the Music Department. He looks nothing like himself, his head rolled to the side, his eyes open, but just barely, and it makes Henry hesitate in the doorway.

Sammy's no longer covered in ink and he's holding his hands to his stomach, pressing hard, and it's almost as if he's trying to keep his organs from spilling out. His hands are bloodied, the blood being both fresh and old judging by its bright color and how some of it seems darker and flakes off Sammy's skin, and Henry has a hard time keeping from dry heaving, and he's not at all squeamish.

Sammy looks like a murder scene victim but he's alive—he's _breathing_.

The thought kicks Henry into action, and he sets the axe he had been holding down on the floor. The Ink Machine has been destroyed and with it had gone the sad creatures it had created, but Henry didn't want to take any chances on being unarmed if there had been some aggressive stragglers.

"Sammy?" Henry calls out tentatively from the doorway.

Sammy's slow to react, but almost imperceptibly, he does appear to attempt to lift his head. Henry takes a few steps into the room, careful to avoid stepping in the blood on the floor as he crosses the distance between himself and Sammy. He crouches down, his knees protesting, and his lips draw into a tight line when he gets a good look at Sammy's stomach wound. There are four large gashes running diagonally across Sammy's stomach, tearing the skin into ribbons. How he hasn't bled out yet, Henry doesn't know.

"Hey there, buddy," Henry says, keeping his voice soft and gentle as to not startle. Sammy does manage to lift his head this time, his eyes locking with Henry's, and God, they're still the most beautiful blue Henry has ever seen. "You're in pretty bad shape," Henry says and if that isn't the understatement of the century, Henry doesn't know what is. "You're going to be okay."

It's a lie that Henry prays will become a hopeful truth.

Sammy makes a sound—it sounds like a snort—and his chapped, blood-crusted lips twist upward. "Always the optimist," he says, his voice hoarse. "Don't lie, Henry."

Deep inside, a part of Henry keens at Sammy saying his name after all this time.

"You're going to be okay," Henry says again, his heart feeling like it's lodged in his throat.

Sammy blinks slowly, and his eyes remained closed for so long that Henry begins to panic, but then they reopen, and they're still staring straight at Henry. He offers Henry the faintest of nods in agreement before closing his eyes again.

They don't reopen.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** N/A; Bendy focused  
>  **Rating:** PG
> 
> Based on an idea where cartoon Bendy exists, unable to be seen, but has been there the entire time and is the one behind the hidden messages. Also, the time loop theory. Fight me, alright. I love my tiny son I never got to meet.

Henry is stuck looping and Bendy wishes there was something he could do about it. Every time Henry steps into the studio for the "first" time, Bendy is by his side, unseen and unheard, and adds another tally mark to the wall with the ink brush he's created, pulled from his side like Adam with his rib to create Eve. Sometimes, Henry seems to remember things, catching onto the puzzles quicker, showing weariness where the floor will give out, and other times, it's as if he really hasn't been to the studio in thirty years and is that naïve.

Bendy wishes he could communicate with Henry, tell him to turn around, and to go back where he came from because inside the walls of the studio is nothing but death. He gets frustrated, tries to interact with things and move them, but the most he can move is the occasional cutout of his own image before he's too tired because, as he's found out, having noodles for arms and legs really has its disadvantages.

It doesn't help he's barely 3 feet tall, too.

He scares Henry once or twice with a cutout—alright, maybe more than once or twice, but the hours are long, and he has to entertain himself if only to maintain a positive attitude. He likes to think it's mostly harmless fun but each time as Henry progress through the studio like clockwork, body increasingly bruised and nerves beginning to fray, Bendy moves less cutouts, choosing to walk—sometimes run—with Henry instead.

As time goes on, Bendy realizes that not every loop is the same, and that there are variances. Sometimes, Sammy survives the attack by the demon disguised as a twisted imitation of Bendy himself. He'll return to the depths of the ink far below, the cesspool of thoughts, and return shortly before Henry enters the Ink Machine in the lower levels for one last attempt at freedom, no matter how misguided his actions are. Other times, Sammy… doesn't.

Then, the biggest variance occurs, and Henry is on loop 48. Allison has a strange device, and when she looks through what Bendy would describe as glass, it seems like she can see the messages Bendy has left. She follows the messages and gets nowhere because the messages aren't meant for _her_ —they're meant for _Henry_.

Briefly, Bendy wonders if he stood in sight of the device, if Allison would be able to see him. At first, the thought excites him because that means he'd have someone to talk to after all this time, but then he remembers the demon masquerading as himself that has done nothing but terrorize her and Tom; he decides it's best to remain unseen.

It's what he's used to, after all.

On loop 53, not long at all after the strange device became commonplace in the story of the studio, Allison passes the device to Henry as he sits in jail. He takes it, and she explains the messages, tells him they don't make any sense, but maybe they'll make sense to him. Bendy stands beside Henry and looks up in wonder as Henry peers through the glass and can see the halo Bendy has drawn above Allison's head and the bone in Tom's mouth.

The loop proceeds much like it always has despite the change, ending with The End and beginning again with Henry walking into the studio, but this time holds the device in his hands. He seems to remember the loop before, or at least some of it because he recognizes the device for what it can do and looks around the entryway of the studio. He counts the tally marks on the wall, reads the apology on the Boris poster, and Bendy smiles wide from where the stands out of sight because maybe—just maybe—this is the key they need to break the loop and escape the studio once and for all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** Sammy Lawrence/Henry Stein  
>  **Rating:** PG-13
> 
> Written for Day 7 of Whumptober; the prompt was "Kidnapped."

When Henry enters the studio, the last thing he expects to happen is to be kidnapped, but the further he explores, that's exactly what happens. He hears a voice behind him and before he can turn, something hard hits the back of his head, and boy does that hurt as he falls to the floor, his ears ringing. Surprisingly enough, he doesn't pass out, and when he looks up from his position on the floor, he sees the body shape of someone that looks familiar to him covered in layer after layer of ink. Before he can contemplate on why they look so familiar, the hard thing—a dustpan, as it turns out, made of solid metal—is hitting his head again.

He passes out this time.

Henry comes to awhile later, his head hurting, and restrained to a pole; the ropes feel suffocating and he wiggles a bit to test how tightly he is bound but only succeeds in hurting himself as the coarse texture of the rope scrapes against his exposed skin. Needless to say, the ropes are bound tightly, which is good to know.

In front of him, Henry belatedly realizes, is the familiar figure covered in ink, and they're no longer wielding the dustpan (thank God for that). They're speaking, and Henry doesn't really catch what they're saying because he's too lost in the fact he recognizes the voice as Sammy's, the man whose voice he'd heard on many of the tape recorders strewn about the Music Department, and the man Henry used to love before everything fell apart. It's why they—he—looks so familiar, even covered in ink.

Then, Sammy's not speaking anymore, and is instead leaning forward. Henry instinctively leans back, the back of his head hitting the wall, and wow, that hurts because it's sore and probably bruised from getting hit with a metal dustpan.

"You look familiar to me," Sammy says, raises a hand in front of his face, almost touches Henry's. "That face…"

And before Henry can reply, find his voice and tell Sammy that it's him—it's _Henry_ , don't you remember?—Sammy leans away, says it doesn't matter because their Lord is calling, and Henry's sacrifice will free him from his prison. Henry watches him leave, the door slamming shut behind him, and feels a sadness for a man he hasn't thought about in years because it hurt too much. He wonders, as he listens to what must be Bendy moving around in the pipes above, if things could've ended differently if he'd tried harder all those years ago.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** N/A; Bendy focused  
>  **Rating:** PG-13
> 
> Set in a world where cartoon Bendy was successfully brought to life using the Ink Machine. However, after Henry leaves, Joey forces Bendy back into the Ink Machine where he then becomes the deformed Bendy we know and love.

The first thing Bendy is aware of is that it hurts. The Ink Machine protests around him—doesn't welcome him back—and the pain it brings robs Bendy of the ability to breathe. Bendy's only point of reference for the Ink Machine is a positive one; it had birthed him, liberating him from paper, and brought him to life. It made Bendy smile whenever he thought about it—it was the reason he was alive, and the reason he was able to stand beside Henry, his creator!

Now, Bendy is not smiling, and Henry is no longer there for him to stand next to. When the Ink Machine births him for the second time, Bendy's limbs feel too long and his entire body feels like one big bruise and he cannot see anything other than inky black, black, _black_. He collapses forward into the ink pooling around the bottom of the Ink Machine and he opens his mouth and _screams,_ and for the first time, his mouth makes a sound instead of silence.

It's a distorted and high-pitched wail that echoes off the walls. Over the ringing in his ears, Bendy hears the Ink Machine go quiet behind him. Up above on the balcony, Bendy hears muttering from Joey and then footsteps which grow more and more distant.

 _Joey's leaving,_ Bendy realizes, and with that realization comes another painted caterwaul from Bendy's mouth. Joey's done this to him—Joey's _hurt_ him—and now Joey's _leaving_. Bendy scratches at the floorboards through the ink, wanting to right himself, anger coursing through him, but it's too painful and he does not have the strength.

Desperately, he wishes Henry were here as he screeches again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** N/A; Henry focused  
>  **Rating:** R
> 
> Inspired by the Henry audio logs released leading up to the release of Chapter 5. I went with Allison and Tom being the captors he speaks of (which hey, I was right!) and then the concept Henry doesn't go around guzzling bacon soup like it's his job because you know what? Ink is poisonous if consumed in large quantities and isn't made for human consumption.
> 
> Written for Day 5 of Whumptober; the prompt was "Poisoned."
> 
>  **Warnings:** Forced feeding, starvation, and unintentional poisoning???
> 
> Let's just say Henry has a bad time.

Henry doesn't know how long he's been stuck in the same room. It's hard to tell the passage of time when all he sees is the same four walls which are beginning to feel like they're closing in on him. There aren't any windows but that isn't a surprise considering how far down underneath the studio he must be—he lost track after the third flight of stairs Allison led him down. At first, Allison had asked him questions, and then she took his axe from him. Henry protested, still reeling from the death of Boris, but Allison ignored every word he said. Tom, as it turned out, wasn't much of a talker, and stood imposingly at her side, gently slapping his wrench to his palm in rhythm.

It left Henry with no choice but to follow Allison when she told him to.

Which leaves Henry in his current predicament. He's already checked, double checked, and even triple checked the room for anything he could use to escape or fashion a weapon but has come up emptyhanded. All he managed to find was an old tape recorder which he used to record a message because maybe one day someone will listen to it and know what happened here, and ultimately, what happened to him. His greatest wish, no matter how unlikely, is that Linda will hear it, and get some closure.

The hunger became unbearable a while ago. He doesn't remember a time where he wasn't hungry. Occasionally, Tom will visit, carrying a bowl of bacon soup, and every time Henry doesn't touch it, no matter how increasingly appetizing it appears with his worsening hunger. He tries futilely to tell Tom that he can't eat it because it's _ink_ and it's not _edible_ , but Tom doesn't seem to understand (or doesn't care, Henry isn't sure).

One day, instead of being just Tom, it's Tom and Allison. Henry regards both warily from his position on the bed and then Tom is restraining Henry, prying his mouth open with gloved hands. Henry flails, jerks, and fights with as much strength as he can muster. However, it isn't enough since hunger has rendered him weak. Allison shoves a spoonful of bacon soup into his mouth and Henry chokes, spitting it back out, and Allison's response is to shove another spoonful in, deeper this time, reaching the back of his tongue and his throat, and then another, and another.

Henry gags and involuntarily swallows again and again.

"You have to eat, Henry," Allison is telling him after, frustration on her face, anger in her voice. "Time works differently down here, goes quicker, and it's been a week since you last ate anything. You have to eat," she repeats.

Henry has his mouth closed so tightly that his teeth hurt as they gnash together. He wants to speak but doesn't want to risk opening his mouth to tell her that she's _poisoning_ him. Instead, he stares at her, and does so until she and Tom leave, leaving the discarded bowl of half-empty bacon soup on the floor beside the bed.

As soon as the door closes, Henry's entire body heaves forward as he exhales, his lungs burning. Briefly, he contemplates forcing himself to throw up, two fingers would do the trick, but his throat is already reddened and raw, and when he looks at the bowl on the floor, he decides vomiting would only succeed in making Allison come back and force more ink—not food—into him.

Henry doesn't move for a long time from his bent over position, nausea churning in his gut, and frustratingly enough, he finds that he's still hungry.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** N/A; Henry focused  
>  **Rating:** PG
> 
> Set in a world where Bendy, Boris, Alice, etc. were brought to life using the Ink Machine. Henry still leaves but returns later and finds out that the disfigured Bendy is the same cartoon Bendy he left behind. Listen, you can take the theory that monster Bendy is actually cartoon Bendy but messed up from my cold, dead hands.
> 
> Inspired by a drabble [Megan](http://meganrme.tumblr.com) wrote.

It hits Henry like a slap to the face. His eyes widen, and he watches as the off-model Bendy ambles out of the room, taking the Boris plushie he had stepped on with him. It reminds him of before, when the Ink Machine had first been made—perfected—and with its creation came the ability to bring the cartoons he had created to life. It was Boris first, then Alice Angel, and finally Bendy, almost as if he and Joey were too afraid Bendy wouldn't come out right.

But Bendy did come out right, and he was everything Henry had ever hoped he could be if brought to life; he was no longer ink on paper, but ink in the form of a body, colder than Henry's own body temperature, but still warm. Bendy was cheeky and cunning, but also innocent and naïve in the way a cartoon character would because it didn't understand that the real word didn't work the way a cartoon world did.

("No, Bendy," Henry had said, "we can't drop an anvil on his head because we disagree with him."

Bendy pouted in response.)

Those days were good—until they weren't, and Henry knew it was time for him to go. Joey had started acting differently. He had become pushy, demanding, unwilling to listen to reason, and just… strange. Henry felt hesitant to leave, knowing it would mean leaving behind the toons he and Joey had brought to life, but he felt he had no choice.

So, Henry made the decision to leave, and he followed through on it. Bendy didn't understand his reasoning completely, but he was supportive and so were the other toons. Honestly, it made Henry feel worse about leaving because they were so understanding. He almost wished they would've gotten mad at him, but that would've been out of character for them and would've meant something had gone wrong when they were brought to life using the Ink Machine.

"I'll see you again someday," Henry told the teary-eyed Bendy. Beside him, Alice Angel cried into her hands and Boris snuffled sadly around the bone in his mouth. Henry grimaced, feeling guilty, but continued, saying, "I don't know when, but I'll be back."

And as Henry watches the last of the ink tendrils on the wall dissipate, signaling Bendy had moved on, he realizes this off-model Bendy isn't a separate entity from the Bendy he had bid farewell to thirty years ago. Under everything—the ink, the pointy, skeletal bones, and the sharp edges—was the Bendy who held a Boris plushie in his arms as Henry told him fantastical stories to get him to fall asleep (it worked every time).

"Bendy," Henry whispers his name like a prayer. "I came back."

There is only the sound of whistling and the hum of machinery.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** N/A; Sammy focused  
>  **Rating:** PG-13
> 
> Based on an idea where Sammy had been forced into the Ink Machine and that's what covered him in ink and drove him insane. It goes about as well as you'd expect it to.
> 
> Written for Day 24 of Whumptober; the prompt was "Drowning."
> 
>  **Warnings:** Graphic description of injury, drowning, etc.

Sammy can't breathe. His first instinct is to gasp for breath but when he does, bitterness fills his mouth, travels down his throat, and settles into his lungs. He coughs, sputters, and kicks his legs and arms at the warmth surrounding him, pulsating, and claws so hard at what he assumes to be the metal of the inside of the Ink Machine that some of fingernails bend backward and come off completely. He barely registers the pain through his panic, all his senses muffled because of the bitter-tasting substance he knows to be ink, and he wishes desperately for freedom where he can breathe.

He's drowning but not sinking; there isn't much room to move, and no matter how hard he struggles, he remains suspended in place, the warmth of the ink all-encompassing. He's starting to feel lightheaded and his movements begin to slow. His last coherent thought before unconsciousness takes him is that he finds it strange that the ink inside the Ink Machine is warm unlike the ink flowing through the pipes of the studio which is cold.

Like a mother's womb, the Ink Machine nurtures Sammy, and then births him anew.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** Sammy Lawrence/Henry Stein  
>  **Rating:** PG
> 
>  **Written for the prompt:** 148\. "Why do you only kiss me when I'm sleeping?"

After the studio, affection doesn't come easily to Sammy. Henry knows this, he accepts this, and he understands—he really, _really_ does—but after being woken up by the warm press of Sammy's lips to his own for the third time in the same week, Henry can't help but be curious. So, when Henry awakens to Sammy's lips on his own again, the touch soft and tentative, almost feather light and not there at all, instead of pretending to be asleep as he usually does, Henry kisses back.

Sammy startles and pulls away. Henry opens his eyes then, and he sees Sammy half leaning over him, looking as though he's seen a ghost. Henry thinks perhaps he made a mistake by not continuing the façade of being asleep and ruining whatever this is, but maybe this time he'll let himself be selfish.

"Why do you only kiss me when I'm sleeping?" Henry asks, his voice gentle and not accusatory at all. "It's alright, Sammy," he adds.

Sammy still looks spooked, and Henry can read his body language well enough to know that he's on the verge of fleeing. It makes Henry's chest constrict in a way that results in a deep, uncomfortable ache that he's the cause of this type of fearful reaction in Sammy, the man he's loved for years.

Despite his body language and ongoing silence, Sammy doesn't flee. Instead, he kind of straightens from his leant over position in what Henry assumes is an effort to collect himself. Henry watches and he's content to continue to lay there and not make any sudden movements as to not startle Sammy further.

"I wanted to see if it felt the same," Sammy says after a long pause. "A lot of things from before are… hazy," he says, and he doesn't think the word quite encompasses everything he wants it to. Still, he presses on, saying, "But I remember kissing you. It was… pleasant."

Henry smiles, just a small upward tug of his lips. "Did it feel the same?"

Sammy hesitates, and then says, "Yeah, it did."

"Glad to hear it," Henry says and makes the decision to move his hand and gently grasp Sammy's arm. Sammy jerks involuntarily at the contact, but makes no movement to leave. "You're welcome to kiss me anytime," he says, his thumb stroking the raised hairs of Sammy's arm. "That includes when I'm awake, too."

Sammy huffs a laugh, and it's mostly an expelling of an air.

"Got it," he says.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** N/A; Henry focused  
>  **Rating:** PG-13
> 
> Based on an idea where Henry's stuck looping and is the one behind the hidden messages.
> 
> Written for Day 26 of Whumptober; the prompt was "Broken Ribs."

Lucidity comes and goes for Henry. Sometimes, as he makes his way through the studio, he sees flashes of images and feels phantom sensations, and those experiences feel an awful lot like memories that make him want to vomit from the overwhelming sense of déjà vu because this has happened before, hasn't it? He doesn't know. He isn't sure of anything anymore.

He has a device now, calls it a "seeing tool," and he doesn't remember where he got it anymore, but he has it. It's an interesting tool and allows him to see things written on the walls, floors, ceiling—any surface, really—and to him, the messages, and sometimes drawings, don't make a lot of sense, but at the same time, they do.

(It's giving him a headache.)

Then, he's awoken at the bottom of the elevator shaft by a concerned Boris. Everything hurts, and through bleary eyes, he sees Alice approaching from behind Boris, humming all the while. Henry wants to warn Boris because no, he can't let her take Boris, something bad will happen to Boris if she does, but he's so disoriented he can't form words, and by the time he's able, it's too late, and Boris is gone.

It takes Henry some time to get on his feet, his body feeling sore, and for some reason, he thinks that fall could've gone a lot worse than it had. He stands there, unsure of how to proceed now that Boris is gone, and instinctively, he pulls out the seeing tool, and on the floor in front of the wreckage of the elevator is a message:

_THAT WAS A NASTY FALL  
IT BROKE OUR RIBS ONCE_

Without thinking, Henry finds himself pressing a hand to his chest, feels his ribs with his fingers, and finds nothing out of the ordinary aside from residual tenderness—nothing's broken, his ribs included, and he wonders why he thinks that strange.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** Sammy Lawrence/Henry Stein  
>  **Rating:** PG
> 
> Set in a world where Henry rescues Sammy, human and no longer covered in ink, after the events of the game and they live together. My aesthetic is Henry rescuing and taking care of Sammy and I've never been more transparent before in my entire life.

"Safe," as it turns out, isn't accomplished as easily as Henry would've hoped when the monsters he's promised to protect Sammy from exist in Sammy's head and nowhere else. "Safe," as it turns out, is an abstract concept. Henry does his best, however, and it takes a lot of patience. Sammy doesn't sleep well, and in turn, Henry doesn't sleep well because he spends his nights lying awake, listening to Sammy's relatively-even-but-not-quite-sleeping breathing next to him in bed.

Like clockwork, Sammy's breathing will hitch, getting caught somewhere between his uvula and larynx, and before he can start to panic about things that aren't there, Henry will place his hand on Sammy's bicep. The touch is soft, gentle— _comforting_ —and Sammy will relax, his breathing return to what's considered relative normalcy for him.

"I'll keep you safe," Henry had promised Sammy after everything was over. The Ink Machine was destroyed and those unfortunate enough to be entrapped by its ink were freed. Some were beyond saving but Sammy, despite the injures he'd sustained from Bendy, was _alive_. Henry almost couldn't believe it. "Things are going to be different from how you remember them," Henry continued. "It's been thirty years, but… you're going to be alright."

(" _We're_ going to be alright," Henry wanted to say but didn't.)

Sammy remained silent and honestly, he hadn't spoken much at all after Henry found him in what remained of the Music Department. Then, Sammy had nodded—the slightest inclination of his head and bending of his neck—and Henry stepped forward, his arm around Sammy's waist, supporting most of his weight, and together they walked out of _Joey Drew Studios_ and into the sunlight.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** Sammy Lawrence/Henry Stein  
>  **Rating:** PG
> 
>  **Written for the prompt:** 9\. "You're safe now. I've got you."

Sammy's disoriented; his senses are overloaded, being able to see and hear clearly for the first time in what feels like an eternity, and he can't _think_. There are hands on him, rubbing his arms with something soft, and his oversensitive skin sends rapid-fire signals of "no, no, no, stop, stop, stop," and Sammy flinches away from the hands. He doesn't want to be touched— _stop touching me!_ —and he curls inward on himself.

"It's OK, Sammy, it's me," someone is saying and in Sammy's head it registers that it's not _someone_ —it's _Henry_.

Sammy lifts his head up, and in front of him is Henry. He's on his knees, several towels stained black laying in a pile beside him, and there's this concerned but soft expression on his face. Sammy looks past Henry at the sink where the faucet is running, water pouring out into the basin at a steady rhythm. The water is clear, allowing light to pass through, and it isn't anything like ink that absorbs all light and destroys everything it touches (so many music sheets ruined; compositions lost—)

"Sammy," Henry says, his voice slightly raised, and he's leaning forward, his eyebrows upturned in concern. Sammy realizes then that he's zoned out, muttering under his breath about the wretched, dreadful ink and everything that is has ruined. Sammy goes quiet, and he stares at Henry, his eyes wide.

"Sammy," Henry says his name again, his voice softer, and something inside Sammy keens for Henry to say his name again and again. "I'm going to continue washing you now, alright?" He holds up one of the cleaner towels. "And then we can leave."

"Leave," Sammy repeats, his voice almost inaudible.

"You're safe now," Henry says and he sounds so earnest it resonates in the core of Sammy's being. "I've got you."

Suddenly, Sammy reaches forward grasping Henry's arm just beneath the elbow. "I've got you, too," he says, and the expression on his face is slightly crazed and desperate but also _hopeful_.

Henry startles, but after a moment, smiles. "Yeah, you got me."


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** N/A; Henry focused  
>  **Rating:** PG
> 
> Written for [Megan](http://meganrme.tumblr.com) as a reward for writing 6k in a single day for [NaNoWriMo](http://nanowrimo.org)! I asked her what she'd like me to write and she wanted something based on the theory that cartoon Bendy is the one behind the hidden messages. I proceeded to ignore what she wanted and wrote about Henry and stars instead.
> 
> Whoops. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Henry doesn't know what to think of the messages. Some are short and sweet, single words or short phrases; others are longer, such as sentences, but never paragraphs; the rest are drawings with no words involved. In absence of words, there are a lot of stars, and as Henry moves the seeing tool up and down the wall, from baseboard to ceiling, there is nothing but dozens upon dozens of stars of varying sizes on the wall as if someone has drawn their own galaxy by hand.

However, the stars disappear much like they do when the sun rises over the horizon each morning, but in this instance, instead of being drowned out by the sun's brightness, they have disappeared because Henry has lowered the seeing tool and is no longer looking through its glass lens. He stares at where the stars are, because although he can no longer see them, he knows they are there.

It's an uneasy feeling, to know something is there that he cannot see with his naked eye, but within the scope of all the terrible things he has witnessed in this studio—the things that have made his stomach churn and the audio logs that have made him mourn his coworkers and what they have become—the stars drawn on the wall in front of him, and on the box in the room the next room over, and on the floor of the elevator, and everywhere else he has seen them, are nothing if not a comfort.

He finds himself reaching out, pressing his fingers to the wood of the wall, and there's a part of him that wants nothing more than add to the unseen galaxy before him. So, he tells himself he's going to do just that, and he leaves, finds a pen in one of the drawers of an abandoned desk in a nearby room, and returns with it and one of the many jars of ink that are scattered across the studio.

He doesn't feel any fear of being out in the open as he probably should as he begins to draw stars on the wall. They are thin lined at first, the pen not made for drawing, nonetheless on wood where he has to apply force to make the ink take, but he goes over the lines over and over again until it does, and the lines are thick and bold.

Henry's wrist hurts by the time he's done, and when he takes a step back, he pulls out the seeing tool once more. Peering through it, he sees that the galaxy has expanded, glowing yellow stars accompanied by those drawn in black, and overlapping in places. It's everything he could've asked for, and then, he notices something different—words written near the bottom, about as high up as his knee, that weren't there before.

_YOUR STARS ARE BEAUTIFUL,_ the words read.

Smiling, Henry says, "Yours, too."


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Pairing:** Sammy Lawrence/Henry Stein  
>  **Rating:** PG
> 
> Guess who missed writing sad inky boys??? It was me. This is loosely based on an idea where instead of Bendy just being a demon wearing Bendy's face, it's actually Bendy himself but somewhere along the way of being brought to life something went wrong and he didn't come out right.
> 
> Or: Henry's the world's saddest bean™.
> 
>  **Written for the prompt:** 48\. "Why are you crying?"

In the middle of the night is when it hits Henry. It creeps up on him, making his chest feel unnaturally heavy as he lay awake in bed, staring up at the ceiling, watching the slow rotation of the ceiling fan above him. His eyes follow the movement and faintly, barely, does he hear the sound of the air conditioning kicking on outside.

His face feels warm—too warm, and warmer than it was moments ago, and when he reaches up with his hand, touches one of his cheeks, his fingers come back wet. His breath hitches, gets caught somewhere in his throat. He sits upright, quicker than he should with Sammy sleeping beside him because Sammy and sudden movements don't mix, but he's distracted by the fact he can't breathe.

Henry gasps, desperate for air to fill his lungs, and it does, but somehow it isn't enough as he finds himself wheezing. His eyes are burning, his entire body feeling overheated now, and he's bent forward uncomfortably. There are alarm bells going off in his head, drowning out everything else, and he doesn't know _why_ , just that they _are_.

He squeezes his eyes shut, prays that this will pass, but all he can see is Bendy's face staring down at him, half-obscured by ink that won't stop dripping. He remembers it all too well, feels it too strongly, and the guilt is overwhelming, suffocating him, and unabating in its ruthlessness. He shouldn't have played the reel, he shouldn't have let it end that way, and oh, this is the reason he's breaking down.

He heaves a breath, and another, and then another, and each one is more fulfilling than the last. Slowly but surely, the screaming of the alarm bells lessens, and he doesn't know how long it is until he notices the warm pressure of a hand resting on the small of his back. It's comforting and grounds him in the here and now and not the blind panic only beginning to release him.

He's still crying, unable to help himself, as he hiccups.

"Why are you crying?" Sammy's quiet voice asks from beside him.

Henry knows why.

(He doesn't want to say.)

"I'm alright," Henry replies, opening his eyes, and his voice sounds as terrible as he feels—emotionally drained and exhausted. "It's… been a long night."

On the bedside table, the alarm clock reads 3:37 A.M., and Henry hasn't slept. Sammy's hand is still on the small of his back and has begun to move in slow circles. Henry lets himself lean into the feeling, straightening a bit, and as Sammy maneuvers him into a more comfortable, half-laying position, he tells himself that although he has regrets about who he was and wasn't able to help at the studio, Sammy's someone he's never going to regret saving.


End file.
